Dire Straits

by Melissa Pearl

  Jarrett had shifted closer to her, his leg almost touching hers. He reached out for her hand and gently squeezed it.

  “Mark and Joey were the ones who came,” she whispered. A tear slipped down her cheek. “They… My mom didn’t know I was listening when she opened the door. But I was. I was upstairs, looking through the railing. Mark saw me, and I could tell that he didn’t want to say anything with me listening, but my mom knew as soon as she opened the door.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Jarrett said.

  “The road was wet. Slid off the road and slammed into a tree. Died on impact.” She smiled grimly. “At least he didn’t suffer.”

  It was one of the things she tried to console herself with. The fact that it had been instantaneous. The fact that her mother hadn’t been along with him. The fact that no other car had been involved.

  Those were the good things.

  The only good things.

  They sat in silence for a minute, Jarrett’s hand still holding hers. It was warm and comforting, and she was grateful for it. It helped to calm her, to steady her.

  “I lost my dad last year.” Jarrett’s voice was gruff.

  Jessica looked at him. “You did?”

  “Cancer.” He sipped his wine. “Lymphoma. It spread fast, though. He died pretty quickly after he was diagnosed.”

  She squeezed his hand. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

  He pressed his lips together, and she could see the wetness in his eyes. Her heart ached for him, because she understood the loss he’d experienced. His was still new, still fresh, though. She’d had years—decades, even—of living without her father. She didn’t want to say it got easier, because she always missed him and always wished he was still there, but it had.

  “My mom is sick now.”

  She froze for a second. “Cancer?”

  He shook his head. “No. The doctors haven’t been able to give us a firm diagnosis yet. Something autoimmune is our best guess at this point.”

  Jessica remembered back to the 5K race, when the woman had come up to Jarrett and told him about his mother not doing well. She hadn’t given it much thought then.

  “I don’t know why I’m telling you this.” He drained his wineglass and set it down on the coffee table. “Maybe to let you know we have that in common. Losing our dads.”

  “You don’t have to have a reason,” Jess said. “I’m glad you told me.”

  And she was. Not just because it was something they had in common, but because it made Jarrett seem a little more…vulnerable. It made Jess feel like there was more to him than the hard-hitting reporter who used his charm to get the information he wanted. He was human. He felt pain and heartache, just like she did.

  “I like telling you things,” Jarrett said softly. His eyes were on hers, those golden hazel eyes that turned her insides liquid. “I’m usually the one asking the questions. Listening. This is sort of new territory for me.”

  “I like listening to you,” she told him. There was so much truth behind those words. She liked that he wanted to talk to her. That he’d chosen her to confide in.

  “There’s something else.” His fingers tightened around hers.

  She looked at him. Breathless. Waiting.

  “I like you, too.” His eyes were like a tractor beam now, and Jess knew there was no way she could look away. “I like spending time with you. I like the way you look at me. I like the way you talk to me. I like how you make me feel. I…I like everything about you, Jess.”

  She couldn’t speak, could barely breathe.

  Jarrett Pryor was spilling his soul to her.

  To her.

  Her head was spinning, and not from the drinks she’d consumed.

  Jarrett leaned toward her and Jess’s heart hammered in her chest.

  She didn’t think, didn’t hesitate for even a second as he brought his lips to hers.

  A soft moan escaped her mouth as he kissed her, softly at first, his lips firm and warm. His scent washed over her and his scruff tickled her chin and she didn’t care. She pulled her hand away from his so she could wrap both arms around him, and suddenly it was his turn to moan. He crushed her to him, deepening the kiss, plunging his hands into her hair. He urged her lips apart, and his tongue touched hers. She was lost, completely lost to this kiss. This moment. This man.

  He shifted her onto her back, his hands caressing her arms and then her abdomen, his body fitting itself perfectly against hers. She clutched him eagerly, marveling over the smooth expanse of muscles across his back and the tautness of his shoulders and chest.

  Everything that had happened that day and that night faded as she lost herself to the man kissing her and caressing her and loving her.

  This was all that mattered.

  Right here. Right now.

  This was it.

  24

  Monday, July 2

  5:45 pm

  Jarrett’s bed was empty.

  Even half-asleep, he sensed this.

  He shifted in the bed and encountered still-warm sheets.

  But no Jessica.

  He forced his eyes half-open and tried to focus. It was morning, but early. The sky outside was a dark navy blue, still transitioning to daylight. Birds chirped outside their window, but the chorus of crickets and cicadas was still going strong, too.

  His eyes, still fuzzed with sleep, swept the room.

  Jessica was still there with him.

  In the room in her mother’s basement.

  The room where they’d spent the night together.

  Memories flooded his mind of exactly what they’d been doing just hours before.

  “Come back to bed,” he murmured.

  “I can’t,” she hissed.

  His eyes opened a little more fully now.

  She was yanking her dress over her head, the same dress she’d worn the day before. The same dress he’d peeled off her only hours earlier. His body responded almost immediately at the memory.

  “What are you doing?” he mumbled, which was a stupid question to ask since he could see exactly what she was doing. She was getting dressed. The better question was, why?

  “Getting dressed,” she said, stating the obvious.

  “Why?”

  She looked at him fully now, and his breath caught in his throat. Even in the early morning hours, her face free of makeup, her hair a tousled mess, she was breathtakingly beautiful.

  “Because I can’t have my mom know I spent the night down here.”

  Jarrett pushed himself up against the headboard, attempting an upright position. “She sort of indicated last night that she thought you might be staying down here. With me.”

  Jess dipped her head, trying to hide the telltale blush that immediately began to spread across her cheeks. The flush to her skin only served to heighten Jarrett’s early morning desire for her and he ached, physically ached, for her to come back to bed.

  “No.” She was shaking her head. “Just…no.”

  She raked her fingers through her hair, trying to smooth out some of the tangles. He smiled, remembering the feel of those silky strands between his fingers. He was only a little bit sorry that his touch had created the snarls she was now trying to work through.

  He could look at her all day, he realized. The woman standing in front of him mesmerized him. Her looks. Her mannerisms.

  He swallowed.

  Her body. Definitely her body.

  But there was more.

  Her honesty. Her vulnerability.

  She was the whole package.

  And she was running out of the bedroom they’d shared like a teenager who was in danger of missing curfew.

  He listened as her feet carried her up the stairs, back to the main floor.

  And then he tensed.

  He heard voices.

  Her mother’s mingled with hers.

  He flung the covers off him and reached for his own discarded clothes. He stepped into his shorts and pulled his shirt on, then half-stumble
d out of bed, his feet getting caught in the sheet in the process.

  He swiped at his own unruly hair and grinned. He had tangles, too.

  Hustling up the stairs, he found both Jess and her mother standing in the kitchen.

  Trina smiled at him. She was still in her pajamas, and with her hair down, she looked even more like her daughter than she had the day before.

  “Good morning,” she said. She had started coffee already, and the aroma filled the bright and airy kitchen. “Did you sleep well?”

  Jessica shot him a look.

  “I slept great,” he said. He motioned to Jessica. “But she’s the one you should be asking about sleep.”

  Trina arched an eyebrow and Jessica gaped at him in shock.

  He nodded. “She passed out on the couch. I tried to wake her up but she wasn’t having it.” He smiled pleasantly at Jess. “Did you ever make it up to your bedroom?”

  The look of relief that washed over her face almost made him chuckle.

  “She didn’t,” Trina said, answering for her. “She just came upstairs now.” She turned her attention to her daughter. “I hope you were warm enough down there. The basement can get cool, even in the summer.”

  “I was fine,” Jess murmured.

  Jarrett flashed back to just how fine it had been. They hadn’t been warm. They’d been on fire.

  “Well, good.” If Trina had any doubts about Jarrett’s version of events, she was keeping them close to her chest.

  She puttered around the kitchen, pulling large coffee mugs from the cupboard and getting cream and sugar set out on the table.

  “Do you want your coffee in here or out on the deck?” she asked as she filled the mugs. “I’ll make some pancakes and bacon.”

  “You don’t have to do that,” Jess told her. “We could probably just grab something on the road. After we get the car, I mean.”

  Trina glanced at the time displayed on the microwave. “Honey, it’s not even seven o’clock. I doubt the shop is open yet. Let me feed you before you hustle out of here.”

  Jarrett made the decision for them. “I’m starving,” he announced. “Pancakes and bacon sound terrific. If it’s not too much trouble, of course.”

  “No trouble at all.” Trina was already pulling ingredients from the fridge. “I so rarely cook for a crowd these days.”

  Jarrett added some cream to his coffee. “Well, I’m happy to oblige.”

  Trina smiled at him. “You two should go sit outside for a bit. Get some fresh air before the long drive back.”

  Jessica hesitated. She was holding her cup of coffee but not drinking it.

  Jarrett walked to the sliding glass door and pushed it open. He looked expectantly at her.

  Her mouth twisted back and forth before she finally made her decision and stepped out onto the deck.

  She sat down in one of the chairs they had occupied the previous night, before the storm had rolled in. The outdoor furniture was miraculously dry, and Jarrett wondered if Trina had come out earlier to wipe everything down. She must have, he thought, because the trees and grass were still wet, and drops of water rained down every time the morning breeze rustled the branches above them.

  “Think she bought it?” Jarrett asked as he sipped his coffee.

  Jessica shrugged. “No idea. Knowing her? No.”

  “And is that so terrible?” he asked. “If she knows what happened between us last night?”

  She glanced into her mug. “I don’t know. Probably not.”

  “Well, for what it’s worth, she seems like the kind of person who would be okay with it. With her grown, adult daughter spending the night with a man.” He paused. “And for what it’s worth, I was okay with it. More than okay.”

  Her eyes darted a glance in his direction. He could tell that his directness made her a little uncomfortable, but he wasn’t going to pussyfoot around what had happened between them.

  He didn’t have any regrets about going to bed with her last night.

  None.

  “I was, too.” Her voice was barely a whisper.

  He nodded, relief and satisfaction swelling inside of him. Never in his wildest dreams would he have thought that a fruitless trip tied to an investigation, along with a subsequent five hundred dollar car repair bill, would be things he was okay with.

  But he was.

  Because those things had resulted in something else, something far more important, at least as far as he was concerned.

  A shift.

  He wasn’t sure what was happening with Jessica, or where—if anywhere—things might lead, but he knew one thing.

  Their relationship had changed.

  For better or for worse.

  25

  Monday, July 2

  6:30 pm

  “I screwed up big-time.”

  Jessica was sitting with Megan in their living room, holding a large bowl filled with the biggest serving of ice cream she’d ever seen.

  Megan had shoved it at her before settling down on the couch next to her, a bowl of her own in her hands.

  “Spill,” Megan said. She spooned a bite of chocolate ice cream into her mouth. “The suspense is killing me.”

  Jessica hesitated.

  Jarrett had dropped her off well before lunchtime, and she’d had all day to sit and obsess over the previous thirty-six-hour period.

  All day to think about their wasted trip to talk to Donovan Smith.

  All day to think about how Kellan and the rest of the AFPD would feel about her doing what essentially amounted to police work—detective work—on her own free time. When she wasn’t a detective.

  All day to think about the questions from her mother, both said and unsaid, that she’d dodged.

  And all day to think about how she’d spent her night…and whom she’d spent it with.

  She didn’t want to regret sleeping with Jarrett. The time they’d spent together had been nothing short of magical. She’d needed him, physically and emotionally, and he had been like an answer to her prayers.

  But that was in the moment. The heated moments they’d shared, their bodies entwined, and then after, sated and spent and warm, nestled up against him, comforted by how solid and firm he was. How protected she’d felt.

  Now, though, with a little distance, he was starting to feel like her worst nightmare.

  And she didn’t know what to do about it.

  “Oh my God, I don’t have all night,” Megan complained.

  Jessica fixed her with a stare. “Oh, really? Do you have plans? Going to Brendan’s?”

  Megan wrinkled her nose. “He’s out of town. Again.” Jess could hear the exasperation in her best friend’s voice. Brendan was a sales rep for a medical device company. And he traveled. A lot.

  The fact that he was rarely around was probably one of the main reasons he and Megan were still together. It allowed her the opportunity to work on all of her pet projects and to spend her free time volunteering instead of with her boyfriend. Of course, when he was in town, she practically lived with him, but those times seemed to be fewer and farther between these days.

  “Where is he this time?”

  “No clue.” Megan shrugged. “Somewhere in Iowa, I think.”

  Jessica slurped her ice cream off her spoon and tried not to frown. If she had a boyfriend, she’d be damn sure she knew where he was. Because she would care.

  Immediately, her thoughts turned to Jarrett and she wondered how he was spending his night.

  If he was thinking about her.

  Megan waved her spoon in Jess’s face. “You left again,” she said. “You’re completely off in la-la land.”

  Jessica couldn’t dispute this.

  “Is it a guy?” Megan demanded, her eyes widening. “Oh my God. It’s the reporter, isn’t it? The guy from the concert the other night. What’s his name? Jared?”

  “Jarrett,” Jess corrected automatically, then froze.

  Shit.

  She probably shouldn’t have said
that.

  Megan was practically vibrating next to her on the couch. “I knew it!” Her eyes narrowed. “But you said you screwed up. How?

  Jess looked at her bowl. Even though the air conditioning was on, her chocolate ice cream was quickly melting.

  “What did you do?”

  Jess bit her lip. She needed to talk to someone. It was killing her, keeping all of this bottled up. “I slept with him.”

  Megan’s mouth dropped open. And then she gave Jessica a huge smile and let out a war whoop. “That is fantastic! And that is so not screwing up. He’s totally hot!”

  Jess busied herself with her ice cream, spooning more into her mouth.

  “Is that who you were with yesterday?” Megan asked. “Your texts were so cryptic. Just that you were up on the North Shore and that you wouldn’t be home until today. I thought you were visiting your mom.”

  Jessica shot her a look. “We were…”

  “Seriously?” Megan laughed. “You did it in your mom’s house?”

  Jess managed a weak nod.

  Megan slapped the couch with her palm. “I never would have thought you had it in you. I mean, this is the first guy you’ve slept with since I’ve known you, right? Or are there other guys you just haven’t told me about?”

  Jess shook her head.

  “Well?” Megan demanded. “So how was it?”

  Jessica squirmed a little. She wasn’t the kind of person who relished sharing intimate details of her life. She wanted to talk to Megan about how she felt now, not give her a play-by-play account of her physical encounter with Jarrett.

  “I’m worried,” she said.

  “Worried? Why? What do you have to be worried about?”

  This was it. Her moment to fill Megan in on everything that had happened over the last few days and see if she could offer any advice. Jess normally didn’t discuss work-related stuff with her, but technically speaking, this actually wasn’t related to her job. She was doing this on her own with Jarrett.